Education Secretary: Must Hold Teachers Accountable

ARNE DUNCAN: 'Excellence matters.'

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan July 2 voiced his commitment to wide-reaching education reform in a speech at the National Education Association's representative assembly July 2, telling Teachers, "We need to go in a room. . . lock the door, throw out the rule books, and start with a clean slate."

Mr. Duncan, who has vociferously supported the education policies of Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, told the nation's largest Teachers' union that he would continue to advocate for merit pay, easier paths to the firings of incompetent Principals and Teachers, and a well-designed testing system that would measure Teacher success.

Seeks Embraceable Terms

"Excellence matters and we should honor it—fairly, transparently, and on terms Teachers can embrace," Mr. Duncan said, before launching into a point-by-point endorsement of topics that are traditionally considered anathema to teacher unions.

"Chronically under-performing schools do not have the best Principals and Teachers," he said. "Experience tells us that failing schools usually have poor leadership—and poor leadership usually drives away good Teachers."

Mr. Duncan's thoughts on the relaxing of strict tenure agreements were focused on administrators. "Great Principals lead talented instructional teams that drive student performance and close achievement gaps. They deserve to be recognized and rewarded," he said. "But if they're not up to the job, they need to go."

While the Education Secretary said he supported giving educators "more support" before dismissing them, he also took a hard line on current practices, saying, "we have to find the right people and we can't let our rules and regulations get in the way. . . in- cremental change won't save [children]. We need dramatic change."

'Protecting Jobs, Not Children'

He continued, "when an ineffective Teacher gets a chance to improve and doesn't, and when the tenure system keeps that Teacher in the classroom anyway—then the system is protecting jobs rather than children. That's not a good thing."

Saying that education unions were "at a crossroads," Mr. Duncan said that he had already applied pressure to charter school operators and city school boards on the same issue and that he sought input from all sides to make any tenure reforms work.

On the use of data to measure Teacher success, the Secretary noted a New Teacher Project report that found most Teachers are rated the same under current models. "Who in their right mind really believes that?" Mr. Duncan asked, saying that union policies had "produced an industrial factory model of education that treats all Teachers like interchangeable widgets."

"I understand that tests are far from perfect and that it is unfair to reduce the complex, nuanced work of teaching to a simple multiple choice exam," he continued, "but to remove student achievement entirely from evaluation is illogical and indefensible."

Both Unions Willing to Talk

The NEA, which represents 3.2 million workers across the country, is larger but typically less active than the American Federation of Teachers, the national union that includes this city's United Federation of Teachers.

While AFT President Randi Weingarten declined to comment on Mr. Duncan's speech, she has discussed relaxing rules on tenure and merit pay in speeches to her UFT members.

Despite some boos mixed in with applause at Mr. Duncan's speech, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said he agreed with the Secretary's vision for collaboration between education leaders on the issues. "I believe that most Teachers do an outstanding job, but that shouldn't stop us from working together to find out what works best," he said. "We need to have educators at the table, helping all Teachers become as good as they can be."